Thursday, September 27, 2007

Two notes from colleagues

I have a couple of notes to pass along.

At various conferences over the years I have run into Kevin Grier, a fine economist and econometrics helper to many. He's currently at the University of Oklahoma, and has now taken up blogging with the revived Mungowitz EndKids Prefer Cheese. This is doubly good news, as you now get two great senses of humor combined with a taste for solid economic and political analysis ... and it means Munger is back! Added to my blogroll, it should be for you too.

Second, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tim Taylor, managing editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives and someone interested in teaching principles at all educational levels, a few years ago. He's been working on a textbook recently that is sold through Freeload Press (I discussed them back in 2005). It's now ready for use. I was just noting with students this month that the cost of textbooks in my class, even for an electronic-only copy, is $60 -- much better than the $140 you might pay for a new print copy but still more than a tank of gas. Tim says you can buy an advert-free copy for $30, so the cost reduction is pretty good -- or you can look at a .pdf with some ads for free.